NFL Films gets an earful of Belichick

Bill Belichick has never been much of a talker, so the only way football fans were able to hear his extended thoughts on the game was for the NFL to mike him up.

And that’s exactly what the league did for the entire 2009 season. The results can be heard, and seen, with the first episode of “Bill Belichick: A Football Life.” Two-part docu from NFL Films will debut on NFL Network at 9 p.m. ET Thursday. The second part airs Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. ET.

Not only is Belichick wired for his reactions on game days, but the Patriots coach chats up about some of the league’s most recognizable icons.

“Bill Belichick doesn’t only make history, he studies it, understands his place in it and appreciates our desire to capture it,” said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. “Like Vince Lombardi’s Packers in 1967, Belichick and the Patriots gave us access to his football life and what we created is a portrait of the coach, the father, the taskmaster and, most importantly, the man.”

Future installments of “A Football Life” will focus on late Philadelphia Eagles teammates and legends Reggie White and Jerome Brown; Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton and the storybook saga of Kurt Warner.